Top 150 Kofi Annan Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Founded on the principles of private initiative, entrepreneurship and self-employment, underpinned by the values of democracy, equality and solidarity, the co-operative movement can help pave the way to a more just and inclusive economic order.”

— Kofi Annan

102. “I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take the lead and make the leaders follow.”

— Kofi Annan

103. “A world government can intervene militarily in the internal affairs of any nation when it disapproves of their activities.”

— Kofi Annan

104. “If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are the conditions for development.”

— Kofi Annan

105. “Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all.”

— Kofi Annan

106. “We must restore the sacredness of the family as a bedrock of humane values everywhere, in peace as well as in war.”

— Kofi Annan

107. “Ameen Rihani, one of the earliest Arab Americans, devoted his life to bringing the East and the West together. We are not of the East or the West, he wrote. No boundaries exist in our breast: We are free.”

— Kofi Annan

108. “His Holiness brings a wealth of experience to this exalted office. The United Nations and the Holy See share a strong commitment to peace, social justice, human dignity, religious freedom and mutual respect among the world’s religions.”

— Kofi Annan

109. “The United Nations believes that acceptance of these principles will help the Palestinian people achieve their legitimate goal of an end to occupation and the creation of an independent and viable state, living in peace and security with its neighbors.”

— Kofi Annan

110. “I think that peacekeeping can do quite a lot, if they are given the right mandate with the commensurate resources to get the job done.”

— Kofi Annan

111. “In a world of plenty, continued suffering is a terrible stain on our conscience. It is inexcusable that we not strive, with every resource at our disposal, to eliminate suffering.”

— Kofi Annan

112. “The United Nations is proud to have the Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign as a partner.”

— Kofi Annan

113. “As one of my predecessors said, our objective is not to take people to heaven, but to prevent humanity from going to hell.”

— Kofi Annan

114. “If you have a problem and you can’t find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.”

— Kofi Annan

115. “No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. We all share responsibility for each other’s security, and only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves.”

— Kofi Annan

116. “We must bring a message of solidarity, of mutual respect and, above all, of hope. Business cannot afford to be seen as the problem.”

— Kofi Annan

117. “Microfinance recognizes that poor people are remarkable reservoirs of energy and knowledge, posing an untapped opportunity to create markets, bring people in from the margins and give them the tools with which to help themselves.”

— Kofi Annan

118. “Once you are really challenged, you find something in yourself. Man doesn’t know what he is capable of until he is asked.”

— Kofi Annan

119. “Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations.”

— Kofi Annan

120. “Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.”

— Kofi Annan

121. “Terrorism constitutes a direct attack on the values the UN stands for: the rule of law; the protection of civilians; peaceful resolution of conflicts; and mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures.”

— Kofi Annan

122. “Jewish people have been victims of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world, and in Europe they were the target of the Holocaust, the ultimate abomination. Yet, we cannot expect Palestinians to accept this as a reason why the wrongs done to them.”

— Kofi Annan

123. “The invasion and occupation of Iraq is illegal.”

— Kofi Annan

124. “We don’t need any more promises. We need to start keeping the promises we already made.”

— Kofi Annan

125. “If we can come up with innovations and train young people to take on new jobs, and if we can switch to clean energy, I think we have the capacity to build this world not dependent on fossil-fuel. I think it will happen, and it won’t destroy economy.”

— Kofi Annan

126. “There can be no doubt that these attacks are deliberate acts of terrorism, carefully planned and coordinated and as such I condemn them utterly. Terrorism must be fought resolutely wherever it appears.”

— Kofi Annan

127. “I don’t see a situation where one side will win militarily, take over Syria, and there will be peace and quiet, a clean victory.”

— Kofi Annan

128. “You have made people listen. You have made people care, and you have taught us that whether we are poor or prosperous, we have only one world to share. You have taught young people that they do have the power to change the world.”

— Kofi Annan

129. “Remembering is a necessary rebuke to those who say the Holocaust never happened or has been exaggerated.”

— Kofi Annan

130. “By signing the Oslo accords in 1993 he took a giant step towards the realization of this vision. It is tragic that he did not live to see it fulfilled.”

— Kofi Annan

131. “There are a great number of peoples who need more than just words of sympathy from the international community. They need a real and sustained commitment to help end their cycles of violence, and launch them on a safe passage to prosperity.”

— Kofi Annan

132. “Beneath the surface of states and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in need. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.”

— Kofi Annan

133. “Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory.”

— Kofi Annan

134. “Justice has taken its course and the authority and legitimacy of the legal process must be respected.”

— Kofi Annan

135. “In some ways, the challenges are even more daunting than they were at the peak of the cold war. Not only do we continue to face grave nuclear threats, but those threats are being compounded by new weapons developments, new violence within States and new challenges to the rule of law.”

— Kofi Annan

136. “In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the United Nations will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life, regardless of race or religion.”

— Kofi Annan

137. “From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.”

— Kofi Annan

138. “It is not in the United Nations that the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved. They have to be achieved in each of its Member States, by the joint efforts of their governments and people.”

— Kofi Annan

139. “The problem is this. The spread of markets outpaces the ability of societies and their political systems to adjust to them, let alone to guide the course they take.”

— Kofi Annan

140. “National markets are held together by shared values and confidence in certain minimum standards. But in the new global market, people do not yet have that confidence.”

— Kofi Annan

141. “This is an historic step forward in the world’s efforts to combat a truly global threat.”

— Kofi Annan

142. “Let us all reaffirm our commitment to improving the well- being of families throughout the world.”

— Kofi Annan

143. “Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”

— Kofi Annan

144. “The Millennium Development Goals can be met by 2015, but only if all involved break with business as usual and dramatically accelerate and scale up action now.”

— Kofi Annan

145. “The status quo cannot work.”

— Kofi Annan

146. “You saw the traumas that people lived through, and wondered what it will take to move us as a human community, as humanity, to help in these dangerous situations.”

— Kofi Annan

147. “Does anyone seriously contend that any nation can fend for itself?”

— Kofi Annan

148. “Whether our task is fighting poverty, stemming the spread of disease or saving innocent lives from mass murder, we have seen that we cannot succeed without the leadership of the strong and the engagement of all.”

— Kofi Annan

149. “Both parties accept this vision. But we can reach it only if we move rapidly and in parallel on all fronts. The so-called ‘sequential’ approach has failed.”

— Kofi Annan

150. “These divisions in the international community – the Syrians bear quite a lot of the blame, but we have enabled it by the divisions between us.”

— Kofi Annan